Thursday, June 19, 2014

#FightBackTexas

Reading this is like reliving it. It's a powerful testament to everyone who pushed back against the radical right last summer. Here's just a few examples of the ludicrousness and the triumph -- and the defeat -- among the many unforgettable moments.

I was sitting on the fourth floor with a bunch of people around a table and someone tweeted at me, “They took my tampons.” And I was like, “Oh, you’re funny.” So I tweeted to all the people, “Has anyone else experienced this?” I started tweeting trying to crowd source info, walked downstairs and found a DPS guy and asked, “Are you taking tampons?” And he said, “Yes, we are.”

When I said, “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be heard over the male colleagues in the room,” it was out of pure anger and frustration. I raised my hand. I spoke out, and the gallery heard me. The press table heard me. But my mic was purposefully turned off — as I learned later, all the Democrats mics were turned off.

That question encapsulated so much of what I had been feeling — all of my frustration at the system, at Republican lawmakers who were smugly ignoring the stories that Wendy Davis was reading, at lawmakers playing Candy Crush on their smartphones instead of paying attention.

Everyone erupted. We all did that collectively as the people of Texas. We defeated legislation in the most grassroots way you can defeat legislation.

We yelled. It was hours, weeks, years worth of frustration at being told to be quiet, being ignored, being patronized with claims that this bill was for "women's safety" when anyone who's been paying attention knows that the opposite is true--all coming out in one long, cathartic roar of frustration.

We were shouting so loudly by the end of the night that the building shook. I mean, it's a granite building.

I was three stories down under some pretty thick limestone, and you could feel the building move from the sub-basement. It was incredible.

The thing about the filibuster, and the entire performance of the filibuster, is that it wasn’t politics and it wasn’t theater. It was sports. It was an endurance test. It was the best sporting event I’d ever been to, because it was a contest to see who could endure and who could come up with the right play at the right time.

“We are fighting to keep Austin politicians like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick from getting between a woman and her doctor by eliminating crucial health services like life-saving cancer screenings and making abortion illegal in the case of rape and incest,” Davis said.

Van de Putte attended her father’s funeral on the day of the filibuster and returned to the Capitol that night.

“June 25, 2013 marks the end of the time that this Legislature can work in a vacuum. The people spoke up. It was the people’s filibuster. And with all my heart, I know they are going to show up at the ballot box in November,” Van de Putte said.

8 comments:

I'll support "fighting to keep Austin politicians like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick from getting between a woman and her doctor" when you support "fighting to keep Wadhington politicians like Barack Obama from getting between all Americans and their doctors" via ObamaCare.

Here is what I had to say about the Massachusetts program when it was adopted -- and my position has not changed. http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/168721.php

And as for your single payer argument, Perry, it means that you want the government involved in each and every medical decision made by any American and their doctor. So how can you really have a problem with politicians deciding on abortion -- which has the additional feature of killing a third party?

Oh, Gadfly -- there is nothing deranged about opposing Barack Obama. Indeed, I'd argue that NOT opposing him is a sign of derangement -- of an unhealthy submission to tyranny...

And as for reparative therapy -- I wasn't in Fort Worth and would have spoken against including it in the platform. At the same time, I'm all for fighting to keep Austin politicians like Wendy Davis and Letitia van de Putte from getting between a homosexual and his/her doctor...

And, you otherwise support doing nothing for people in healthcare need, then. ObamoRomneycare is not perfect, or even close, but it's better than what we had. Well, it's not much better here in Tejas, since Gov. Helmethair refused the Medicaid opt-in, but he wants some tricky Medicaid-lite opt-in on his terms.

And, one wonders what the hell you teach your kids as a social studies teacher.

Because, per your latest post, the Preamble of the Constitution of these United States begins with "We the People," and NOT "We the States." Period. End of story.